This past weekend, my sister and her family snuck up here to the DFDub, to surprise us with a visit for the long weekend! Woot Woot! I love family time, letting the kids get together and play, swim.. and this time - my mom, sister and I took on a pretty large craft project. Y'all - when I say that these reversible fall/winter wood crafts turned out amazing, I mean they turned out freakin' amazing! I'm always floored by the amount of creativity that runs in this family!

We started by measuring out our wood pieces, how tall we wanted them to be etc. We ended up using four pieces of the 1x4 wood side by side which was about 16" across, and we wanted it to be a little taller than wide, so we measured the length of the pieces out to 24" (2'). We cut three of the 1x4 boards this way to give use the face pieces. The we cut the "brim" pieces or the piece that goes across the face kind of like the brim of the hat. We measured that out to 22", also on the 1x4 boards, so that it would be a little wider than the faces and still look proportionate. Lastly, we cut the 1x2 into 16" pieces, so that it would be flush with both sides of the face, without any overlap. I ended up putting my piece on the bottom as a way, to not only stabilize the entire piece, but also to help when leaning up/standing up against the wall. My mom used her pieces to nail across the front of her wood craft.

Once the pieces were cut, we used the sanding machine to finish off the edges as well as any areas that needed smoothing. After that, it's time to paint! For the scarecrow face, we used the beige brown and burgundy colors; for the snowman, we used white and black. We put on several coats and let a few minutes drying time between applications. We also painted the brim and trim pieces to match. Lastly, we used the paint pens to draw on the faces for the scarecrow and snowman.

Once all pieces were painted and dried, it's time to get the wood glue and nail gun out! This part was pretty intense, so I don't have any pictures of this! My dad sure is a brave guy to let three women around his tools, especially a nail gun powered by the air compressor! LOL! We started by adding a thin smear of wood glue along the back of the brim piece and then placed it on the front where we wanted. Just a note of caution, be careful because when you flip it over, the brim on the other side is going to have to line up with the brim on the other side. Once the glue and brim are in place, we used the nail gun to make sure the piece was securely in place, about four nails per piece of wood that it's going across. Repeat on the other side, with the other piece of brim as well as with the stabilizing piece at the bottom. Don't worry about the holes from the nails, those can be touched up with paint. After the touch up and dry time, we sprayed on a clear, satin protective enamel to make sure that this craft would be protected whether indoors or outdoors.

Once that was dried, it was only a matter of adding on the finishing pieces, the flowers and straw pieces. We used a hot glue gun and simply hot glued them in place.

This craft did take a little bit of time, and time between phases, but it was nice just being able to chit-chat with my mom and sister over a cute craft like this. Most of the time we're managing schedules, kids or being pulled in so many different directions that it was awesome just being able to chill together!

If you've been on any craft site, namely Pinterest, anytime in the past few months, I'm sure you've seen numerous "EAT" signs that people have been making. Some are large, some are lit, and they all look amazing! I've been wanting to make one for our dining room for a while and finally got it done! This project was so easy and literally took me about thirty minutes, including drying time, and I love the way it looks! Love the industrial look of the letters!

Hobby Lobby is my store, most everything is always on sale and if it's not, they've got a 40% off coupon on their app that is updated all the time! I've never walked out of Hobby Lobby paying full price for anything - so when you're on a budget when it comes to crafting, this is the perfect store and always my go-to. (Unless it's Sunday, then I'll either go to JoAnn or Michael's...)

The supplies didn't cost much at all. The letters were $1.50 ea I think, the glue was $3.99, the poster board (yes, I said poster board!) was $3.99, thumbtacks were $1.99 and the command strips were $3.99. I already had the exacto knife and the yardstick. So, for about $20 I had a cute "EAT" sign to hang in my dining room.

I started by arranging the letters on the poster board to visualize how large I wanted the poster to be. I knew I wanted it to be vertical and skinny.

Next, I used my straight edge and exacto knife to cut the size that I wanted. Be sure that you put something between the poster and your table so that you don't accidentally cut into your table!

Once the board was cut out, I again arranged the letters on the board and worked on the spacing. Once I had them how I wanted them, I used the E6000 glue to attach them to the board. When I opened up the tube of glue, the smell instantly brought me back to the years when I used to help my grandparents make their crafts that they would sell! Ahh, sweet memories!

Anywhoo, I digress. The letters are made of some sort of industrial or galvanized metal material and have ridges and valleys. In order to make the letters stick, I turned the letters up side down and placed a thin line of glue on each of the ridges, so that when I turned it back over, those ridge would be touching and adhere to the poster board.

Once all of the letters were glued on, I used a tape measure (could also use a ruler - my yardstick was too large and cumbersome for this part) to draw a straight line at the top and bottom of the poster. I simply started pushing the thumbtacks into the line and eyeballed the spacing. It's not perfectly straight, but that is alright by me! I still love the way it looks - imperfectly perfect!

I did not worry about gluing them to the poster, but you could if you wanted to. Just be sure it's a little bit so that the glue doesn't seep out the sides!

I didn't get a picture of it, but I did put some books on top of the letters for about ten minutes to help them get a good hold on the poster board.

Lastly, I turned the poster board upside down and added two command strips to the back. As light as this project is, the command strips make much more sense than pounding holes into the wall to hang it on. Plus it's much easier to remove and doesn't leave any holes when I'm through with it!

Remove the backings from the adhesive side and press to the wall! I love my little sign and think it makes a great addition to our dining room! I'm really digging the industrial look and looking forward to redecorating my dining room and possible kitchen in this style!